Such a method is described in the unpublished patent application DE 101 22 414.1. Compared to conventional through-contacting methods by which through-contacting is effected by punching or drilling a through hole and inserting a conductive contact sleeve or pouring in a conductive paste (EP-A-0 884 973), this method is fundamentally simpler. The surfaces of the substrate can be leveled again by subsequent lamination, which at the same time stabilizes the electrical connection between the two contact zones. No additional conductive material is required for producing the contact since the contact zones press firmly against each other due to the internal stress of the flexible substrate.
Such a substrate or such circuit boards are normally integrated as a card inlay into IC cards or chip cards (identity cards, credit cards, cash cards, etc.) and frequently form a separate layer of the card body. On one side of the circuit board there can be for example an integrated circuit formed by the conductive layer and having further electronic devices, while the conductive layer on the opposite side of the circuit board is formed for example as an antenna coil for noncontacting data interchange and energy transfer with external devices, which is electrically connected with the integrated circuit through the circuit board. This electrical connection through the circuit board is generally designated “through-contacting.”
Instead of IC cards, the substrate can also be used in the context of the present invention for tags, stickers and similar security elements with antenna coil technology and/or electronic inlays.
It proves to be problematic in this method that the two working steps to be performed in succession, namely the oblique cut and the urging through of the two substrate areas adjoining the cut (hereinafter also designated “contact tabs” or “through-contacting tabs”), are imprecise and lead to high reject rates. Internal tests with the method therefore required a high expenditure of manual work.